news letter - Norwegian-American Historical Association - St. Olaf ...

The Norwegian-American
Historical Association
Northfield, Minnesota
NEWS
LETTER
From the NAHA Office to the Association Members
NUMBER 126 EDITOR, KIM HOLLAND FALL 2005
CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF INDEPENDENCE
IN NEW YORK
Norwegian-Americans across the United States have
been celebrating the 100 th Anniversary of Norway’s independence
all year. There are still more opportunities to
celebrate in these fall months. You are invited to join the
Edvard Grieg Society, Inc. of New York along with the
Royal Norwegian Consulate General and the Sons of
Norway for a concert on Sunday, November 6, 2005 at
7:00 p.m. at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New
York City. Two U.S. Premieres will be featured:
Norwegian Composer Arne Nordheim’s Violin Concerto
with Soloist Arve Tellefsen and Johan Halvorsen’s
“Norway’s Greeting to Theodore Roosevelt.” Per Brevig
will conduct the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Advanced Sale:
call the Edvard Grieg Society at (201)327-5412.
On November 4 th , The Scandinavia House, 58
Park Avenue, New York City, 10016, will be hosting a
pre-concert colloquium on Norwegian Music, Past,
Present and Future. For information, call (201)750-
0526, or see www.amscan.org.
RECOMMENDED READING: BOLD SPIRIT,
by Linda Lawrence Hunt
NAHA is fortunate to have many types of
researchers come and use the variety of information in
our collections. Several years ago an English professor
from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington stopped
in and met with Lloyd Hustvedt and Forrest Brown. Her
research involved a Norwegian-American woman and her
family who had lived in Minnesota before moving to
Washington state.
The resulting project is a fascinating narrative about
a Norwegian immigrant, Helga Estby, who dared to cross
3,500 miles of the American continent in 1896 to win a
$10,000 wager. On Foot. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s
Forgotten Walk across Victorian America introduces you
to a fascinating journey and an audacious act of courage
and love of a mother trying to save her family’s farm.
The 36-year-old mother of eight demonstrated extraordinary
courage and perseverance during the treacherous
journey from Spokane to New York City. Leaving with
her oldest daughter and only $5 each, the wager required
the women to earn their way across America. Helga and
her daughter challenged contemporary Norwegian and
American assumptions about Victorian femininity.
Because of devastating consequences which occurred at
home during their journey, their remarkable achievement
was blanketed in silence until author Linda Lawrence
Hunt encountered the story a century later.
Hunt used both the NAHA archives and NAHA publications
in her research. The Norwegian-American
Studies were helpful to her, as well as New Land, New
Lives by Janet Rasmussen and Grass of the Earth by
Aagot Raaen. We invite you to read this incredible story
of challenge, family, and resilience. You will gain a sense
of Helga Estby’s immigrant story and her faith in America
and her new life. Bold Spirit can be purchased at most
bookstores and online through Barnes and Noble, or
Amazon.com.
The Norwegian Embassy, in conjunction with the
Smithsonian Associates, is hosting Linda Lawrence Hunt
at the Norwegian Embassy in Washington D.C. on
Thursday, November 17, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. For details see
the Smithsonian Associates website at
www.ResidentAssociates.org.
NAHA invites you to meet the author and discover
some of the talented people who utilize the wonderful
resources of the Association’s archives. An engaging
author and speaker, Dr. Hunt presents Helga’s adventures
and explains why the women’s achievement was unknown
for so long. Linda Hunt author of, Bold Spirit, will be
coming to NAHA and St. Olaf College in mid-March
2006. Details about the location and times for Hunt’s
March 2006 appearance will be provided in NAHA’s next
newsletter. You will want to read this appealing book and
meet the author in either Washington, D.C., or in
Northfield, Minnesota!

ATTENTION SNOWBIRDS:
DELAY IN PUBLICATION of 2005 NAHA BOOK
The NAHA office has been informed of a major
delay in the printing of NAHA’s upcoming publication,
The Rise of Jonas Olsen. Your books are distributed
using the media rate through the United States Post
Service. Media rate does not permit a book to be forwarded.
If you have a “hold” place on your mail or have
your mail forwarded while you are in a warmer location
the book is returned to NAHA. NAHA ends up paying
postage for book’s return trip to Northfield and again to
you at your regular address. For this one and ONLY
time, the NAHA office will send The Rise of Jonas Olsen
to you if you provide us your temporary address for the
period between December 1, 2005 and January 15, 2006.
Drop us a note via email at: naha@stolaf.edu or call us at
(507) 646-3221 so we can get your book to you without
further delay.
IMAGES ACROSS THE SEA: Sweden and America 2025
You are invited to a landmark conference on Sweden
and America as part of the observance of Bethany
College’s 125 th Anniversary. The conference will be held
on the Bethany College campus in Lindsborg, Kansas,
November 17-19, 2005. Complete information about the
conference is available at www.bethanycollegelb.edu
Click on “Special Events” to see the variety of topics
and speakers. The weekend includes a tour of historic
Lindsborg and a Gala banquet held in the historic
Swedish Pavilion from the 1904 World’s Fair.
PBS DOCUMENTARY – “DESTINATION AMERICA”
In the spring of 2004 NAHA was asked to assist
some producers from New York City working on a documentary
about immigrants and the various reasons why
they emigrated to the United States. The four part series
will start airing the week of October 17, 2005. Please
check your local public television station for specific
times and dates. The first episode, “The Golden Door”
deals with, among other nationalities, the Norwegians
who left and settled in Koshkonong, Wisconsin; the second
episode is called, “The Art of the Departure”; The
third episode is called “The Earth is the Lord’s”; followed
by the final episode, “Breaking Free: A Woman’s
Journey.”
LET NAHA’S WEBSITE BE YOUR GUIDE
We invite you to check on the latest version of
NAHA’s website at www.naha.stolaf.edu. NAHA got off
to a very good start thanks to our former webmaster, Gary
Hillman. Websites are constantly changing, and new technologies
are becoming available all the time. You will
find we are continually trying to simplify and make your
visit to the website as straightforward and user friendly
as possible.
The first thirty-three volumes of the Studies have
been scanned and are available in their entirety on line.
Great information resides in each volume of the Studies,
and we have a NAHA Site Index for searching the information
within the Studies.
The newest addition to NAHA’s information finding
tool kit is “Leif”. Leif is an online search engine for the
NAHA manuscript collection. It expands the User Guide
to the Archives by allowing in-depth collection content
searches. Leif allows keyword searches in two distinct
categories: a broad collection search as well as specific
document search within collections. As an example – if
you may want to learn what the Norwegian Americans
wrote about the winter blizzards here in America, that key
word search is now possible with Leif. New data is being
added monthly to Leif. Our goal is to make as much
information as possible accessible to our members and
other researchers.
BEQUEST RECEIVED
The NAHA Board of Directors is grateful to longtime
NAHA member, Rakel Erickson, who valued the
mission of NAHA and included NAHA as a beneficiary
in a portion of the remainder of her estate. Rakel’s gift
reminds our members and friends that a bequest to
NAHA can help you leave a legacy and continue your
interests in preserving Norwegian-American history. If
your priorities include preserving the history of
Norwegians in America and documenting their contributions
to life in the United States you will want to consider
including NAHA in your estate planning. Call (507)646-
3221 if you wish to be sent estate planning information.
ADDITIONS TO THE ARCHIVES
Received from Phillip K. Lunderberg, a packet of materials
from his father and grandfather, Olav K. and Knute O.
Lunderberg. Includes K.O. Lunderberg’s sermon notes for the
wedding of his son Olav and Vivian Juliet Boraas; essays by
K.O. Lunderberg’s children about him and his death in 1942;
and a copy of “Grandfather’s Christmas Memory,” a nine page
story about the dangers in delivering the mail pouch on foot one

Christmas Eve in Norway. Additionally, there are off-prints of
13 scholarly articles by Olav. K. Lunderberg.
Received from the Aust-Agder-Arv Cultural History
Center, Aust-Agder-Arv Årbok 2004, hard-cover, 149 pages, in
Norwegian. The new format is reader friendly and includes articles
about Andreas Faye and his brother Christian Faye, the
Dypvåg church during the middle-ages, information about
Agder in the Norwegian state collection, and the development
of Home Economics schools in Aust-Augder.
Received from Per Øverland, Øverlandslekta, Peder Gjert
Øverland og hans slekt. Soft-cover, 108 pages, in Norwegian.
A family history with photos and lists of children and important
dates.
Received from Per Øverland, Andrine Larsdatter Stokke
og hennes slekt. Soft-cover, 105 pages, in Norwegian. Andrine
Larsdatter came from the farm Stokke of Klieve, east of Molde
in Romsdal. Includes lists of children and important family
dates.
Received from Bruce Heimark, Pieces of the Dream:
Drømmens Realisering –Halvorson and Heimark, 3-ring binder,
approximately 300 pages. Includes maps, copies of family photos
– with most people identified, family charts, newspaper
clippings, certificates, and a 70 th Anniversary history of the
Bergen Lutheran Congregation in Yellow Medicine County, as
well as the official communications from the War Department
upon the death of Andrew Halvorson while fighting in France
during W.W.I.
Received from Dale Sommers, Anders Gilje from Åseral,
Hard-cover, 584 pages in both English and Norwegian. The
authors tried to track every descendant of their great-great
grandfather, Anders Eriksen Gilje. Includes an index, many
photos of family and contact information. Family stories have
been translated into English so American relatives can easily
read about their family members.
Received from Neil Kachur, A Faith Journey 1904-2004,
Centennial of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church of Iola, Wisconsin.
Soft-cover, 134 pages. Norwegian immigrants from Telemark
settled in the Waupaca County, Wisconsin area. Includes a history
of the Norwegian Lutheran church in Wisconsin and this
congregation’s start in 1904. Photos of the buildings, information
about the pastors, interesting or important excerpts from
the minutes of the congregational meetings, and memories
about the congregation from members give one a warm sense of
the church and its people.
Received from Vigdis Devik, Privileged Family –
Privileged Ethnicity, Ethnic Parental Polarization and
Historical Contexts that Shaped the Life of Norwegian-
American Columnist Brenda Ueland. A Master’s Thesis submitted
to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
soft-cover, 99 pages. The author recounts the life story of
Brenda Ueland, a political liberal, feminist intellectual living in
Minneapolis. The daughter of a Norwegian born father, Ueland
wrote articles for twelve newspapers and magazines from 1930
until she died in 1985. The author analyzes Ueland’s evolving
understanding of herself and her relationships to Norway and
Norwegians as well as her relationship to the United States and
Americans.
Received from author, Kenneth G. Clare, Intrepid
Sloopers. Paperback novel, 208 pages. The author has written
an imaginative novel, bringing to life the story of 51
Norwegians who left Stavanger, Norway for New York in the
summer of 1825. Clare’s story helps readers to better understand
what life was like on the ship Restoration, as the sloopers
crossed the Atlantic Ocean. After arriving in New York the
group traveled to upstate New York. Some members of the
group moved to Illinois and other locations.
Received from Norman Erickson, Juli I Vesterheimen,
1912, and additional information about the Norwegian Plow
Company from Dubuque, Iowa.
Received from Ruth Hanold Crane, Ole T. Rong/Ole
Tillerson, Marta Nyre, and Christie E. Sleen: Their Ancestors in
Norway and Descendants in America, approximately 900
pages, 3 ring binder. Ole Tillotson was the father to eleven children
with his first wife and nine children with his second wife.
Includes maps, photos from Norway and the farm in Illinois,
copies of documents, and an inventory of the estate of Ole
Tillerson. Includes information about the many descendants of
the two families.
Received from H. Ronken Lynton, The Sawdust House,
184 pages, Soft-cover. Lynton’s novel creates a sense of the
people and the land as it was during early settlement in southern
Minnesota. Ansgar Thoreson leaves Norway in 1858 for
south-eastern Minnesota. His pregnant wife, Ida, unhappily follows
him one year later with their son who is tragically killed
after their arrival in the United States. From here, their lives
unravel. The author incorporates stories from letters and those
her immigrant grandparents shared with her as she was growing
up in southern Minnesota. There was a mystery within the
family and the author wrote this book as a possible resolution
to a family member’s unsolved disappearance. Lynton’s book
is available at bookstores or through Amazon.com.
Received from Tom Sorenson, From Bruflat, Norway to
Clearwater County, The Tollef Sorenson Family Story. 396
pages, spiral bound. Includes maps, photos, copies of letters,
obituaries, documents and memories written by family members
over the years. The family story begins in the Etnedal area
of Valdres, Norway.
Received from Numedalslågen Laget, Group photos from
the 1927, 1935, and 1936 Stevnes. Several people from the
1935 Stevne have been identified.
Received from Lois Rand, Waldorf College, Continuity
and Change: 100 years- Waldorf College, 1903-2003. Hardcover,
194 pages. Waldorf College was started by Norwegian-
American pastor C.S. Salveson in what had been the Waldorf
Hotel in Forest City, Iowa. Waldorf College has evolved through
the decades and thrives today. Includes an index and biographies
of the important pioneering staff and faculty at Waldorf.
Received from Christine Anderson, 1998-1999
Membership Directory for the Leif Erickson Lodge No.1, Sons
of Norway, Seattle, Washington. The book contains photos of
the different buildings that have housed the lodge, the committees
serving the lodge and the beautiful 1916 murals painted in
Leif Erickson Hall, as well as photos of the members.
Received from Marlene Hustad Engstrom, From Sigdal,
Norway to Grant County, Minnesota and Beyond. The C.O.
Rustand Family and Their Descendants, 281 pages, hard-cover.
Includes a wide range of information about people and the
buildings around Sigdal, Norway and the United States.
Contains genealogical information, photographs, newspaper
articles, obituaries and memories written by family members.

Norwegian-American Historical Association
St. Olaf College
Northfield, Minnesota 55057
www.naha.stolaf.edu
507-646-3221
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